Can mesenchymal stem cells enhance the body’s immune response to HIV

A team from the University of California, Davis (CA, USA) has discovered that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can reduce the amount of the virus causing AIDS, subsequently boosting the body’s antiviral immunity and repairing/restoring the gut’s lymphoid follicles damaged by the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV).

Published in JCI Insight, this study provides a roadmap for developing multi-pronged human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) eradication strategies.

“Impaired immune functions in HIV infection and incomplete immune recovery pose obstacles for eradicating HIV,” commented senior author of the study, Satya Dandekar (University of California, Davis). “Our objective was to develop strategies to boost immunity against the virus and empower the host immune system to eradicate the virus.”

The lymphoid tissue in the gut is an early site for viral replication and the establishment of viral reservoirs. Dandekar’s group has previously shown that an HIV infection causes severe loss of gut mucosal T cells and disrupts the gut epithelial barrier lining.

The current study investigated a SIV model of AIDS demonstrating the mechanism through which MSCs enhance the body’s immune response to the virus.

The researchers administered bone marrow-derived MSCs in a rhesus macaque model of AIDS that had impaired immunity and disrupted gut functions due to the viral infection, resulting in viral reduction and heightened virus-specific responses.

Researchers observed that marked clearance of SIV-positive cells from gut mucosal effector sites was correlated with robust regeneration of germinal centers, restoration of follicular B cells and T follicular helper cells, and enhanced antigen presentation by viral trapping within the follicular DC network.

Gut transcriptomic analyses showed increased antiviral response mediated by pathways of type I/II IFN signaling, viral restriction factors, innate immunity, and B-cell proliferation and provided the molecular signature underlying enhanced host immunity.

MSCs also offer an opportunity for an innovative, multi-pronged HIV cure strategy by complementing current HIV treatments.

While antiretroviral drugs effectively suppress viral replication, they do not repair the damage caused by the virus to the immune system. On their own, these drugs cannot restore the functionality of the lymphoid follicles damaged by HIV infection.

Even without the use of antiviral drugs, MSCs were able to increase the host’s antiviral response by repairing the lymphoid follicles, restoring the mucosal immunity, and reviving what has been targeted by the virus very early on.

Dandekar concluded: “Stem cells are good synergistic partner components with drugs. Antiretroviral drugs can stop the fire of the viral infection but cannot restore the forest of the lymphoid tissue compartment. The MSCs would rejuvenate the field and bring back immune vitality”.

Findings from this study provide a scientific basis for investigating MSC in treating HIV and other infectious diseases in the clinical setting.

Link:https://www.regmednet.com/can-mesenchymal-stem-cells-enhance-the-bodys-immune-response-to-hiv/